Tag Archives: rving

Whirlwind trip west

11/24/2021 Danielle Huddleston Leave a comment

We spent a week with family in MN and then started our journey west, which was promptly paused 1hr in when our hubs broke off our tire (we never did find the tire).

After about 6hrs of searching for parts and the tire (and a lot of work on my husbands part), we got back on the road.

And hit a deer.

I was asleep and Nick had been having me watch videos on trailer sway so I thought this was it, we were flipping over.

Thankfully, although startling it did not damage anything.

We made it to our site and proceeded to wait for the wind to die down enough to finish our drive to the badlands.

Because of the wind we got to the boondocking spot after dark, which is something I really try to avoid.

This was even more intense because of the high winds and drop offs.

I had no clue where to go and we basically just chose the first flat spot and said this is fine.

Unfortunately I did not plan for the wind and it shook us all night. Since the wind was going to get worse the next day Nick wanted to turn the RV to compensate for it so we moved to a better spot the next morning.

And our tongue jack broke.

Thankfully I married a fixer.

Nick insisted on a spot with no steep drop offs and I am super thankful.

The next day our youngest thought it was funny to let the wind almost push her off and also let go of her jacket which was instantly gone.

I grabbed her and put her in the safety of the car and thankfully her jacket caught one of the only trees around…

Because of the high wind the boys decided to sleep in the rv and not try to set up their tent so we had a full house!

All that drama maybe made me appreciate the beautiful views all the more.

Thankfully the rest of our trip was a bit less eventful 😉

Camping, Hiking

Hawthorn bluff Campground ~Oologah Lake

09/30/2021 Danielle Huddleston 3 Comments

After spending the week at Washington Irving I decided we should take advantage of already being packed and go to another campground for the weekend 😉 I am sure Nick loves all my ideas like this.

There was actually someone in our spot when we got there but thankfully we talked and they realized they were there on the wrong date.

This site was right next to the water which was beautiful but also it was right next to this cliff which was a bit stressful. ha

It made for beautiful sunrises though.

He wanted me to try his “way down” but I decided against it.

I realized I was not in any pictures from the week so I set my camera on a rock and fixed that while watching the sunrise with the boys.

It really was an amazing view.

The sites are a nice size as well.

There is a nature trail near the campground that is around a mile long for the long loop.

It had beautiful views of the lake!

The trail was also pretty wide so this is the perfect trail for summer hikes to me. I like them to be open to a breeze and not be narrow, it helps with pests not being as bad.

Next we took the Gazebo Trail to the swimming beach, I did not know it went to it so only the boys were ready to swim.

Nick took the girls back so they could get dressed and drove over to meet us.

After the amazing beach we had been at all week this was a bit disappointing but the kids enjoyed cooling off.

We also went to the Rogers County Fair, The Will Rogers Museum, and the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch, but I will do a separate post about those so this one is not too long.

I loved to sit here and watch the water.

And make sure my kids did not fall off the cliff.

Need to work on cliff safety with my youngest three.

I made myself get up to watch the full sunrise the next day.

It was a beautiful spot for a weekend.

I am even thinking of staying here for a week like we did at Washington Irving. Maybe a little farther away from the cliff though…

Camping

A Week at Washington Irving South ~Cleveland, OK

09/26/2021 Danielle Huddleston Leave a comment

We stayed at a local army corps campground to try out living in the rv while doing normal life.

Our site ended up having zero flat spots which made the boys tent camping difficult but they were able to manage. We found a better site for next time.

We got set up Sunday afternoon and prepared to try out our experiment.

Nick would go to work and I would teach the kids, while staying in one spot in the rv.

That first evening was pretty perfect and I wondered if we should quit while we were ahead.

None of the sites are actually on the lake but you can catch a glimpse of it.

The boys got up early and finished most of their school before their sisters were even up yet. They still had their biggest subjects left though which would require a trip to the library to use the free wifi.

This rig is so big that five kids working and living in it did not seem like a stretch at all so far.

One of my favorite parts was the location of our morning walks, the woods.

There is only one short trail at this recreation area but it worked great for our morning walk.

Having the lake so close was definitely my favorite part. It has a nice sandy beach that we swam in every day.

I was so excited that the wifi reached the parking lot at our library!

The boys quickly did some subjects that needed internet while I worked with the girls. Some in the vehicle and some outside on a blanket.

There was a nice grassy area with trees at the library that was pretty perfect!

We did run into a problem of one child being too hyper to do their school work that disrupted others trying to finish but otherwise it went really well.